Monday, October 3, 2016

Bananarama - Cruel Summer (1984)

While most summer songs are about the beach and having fun with friends, Bananarama's Cruel Summer deals with isolation amid the oppressive heat. It was not an immediate smash, but after it was featured in The Karate Kid (1984), it turned up the temperature of the Billboard Hot 100. For the video, the girls are seen slaving away at a gas station before hitching a ride with a trucker and being chased by the cops, pelting them with bananas (hey, it was the '80s). Shot on a brutally hot day, the girls struggled to get through filming. Apparently when they broke for lunch, Sara, Siobhan and Keren tried cocaine for the first time thanks to some local dockers and everything shot afterward showed them way more enthusiastic!Cruel Summer was filmed in Brooklyn, NYLocation: Jumping, Skipping & KickingAddress:Pierrepont Place, Brooklyn, NYThe choreography in this video left much to be desired but since it was shot during a heatwave, I give them props for even being outside. The girls are first seen here at Pierrepont Place...

Then they are seen hopping up Old Fulton Street...

Then they are kicking it up at 1 Water Street. The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory is the yellowish building on the left. It is seen again later when the cops arrive.

Location: The Gas StationAddress: 14 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NYThe gas station is still there! Although, most of it is currently obstructed by a wall, but luckily there was a little window I was able to see through.

The Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory, seen briefly easier, is now seen in it's entirety...